Strict Standards: date(): It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /homepages/18/d163655616/htdocs/forum/viewtopic.php on line 943

Strict Standards: getdate(): It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in /homepages/18/d163655616/htdocs/forum/viewtopic.php on line 943[phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/functions.php on line 3824: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /viewtopic.php:943)[phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/functions.php on line 3826: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /viewtopic.php:943)[phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/functions.php on line 3827: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /viewtopic.php:943)[phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/functions.php on line 3828: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /viewtopic.php:943)SKY-MAP.ORG / WIKISKY • View topic - Absolute novice seeking help please

I bought my partner a sky-watcher telescope for Christmas and we eagerly set it up ( as best we could ) on boxing day and have been waiting for a clear night since.

Arriving home at 2am we were thrilled to see the sky full of stars and rushed in to take out the scope - but all we can see is pitch black.

There is obviously something very very simple and probably logical to do but we are blowed if we can figure out what is wrong.

We have a small scope *beep* on top of the main one and can see the stars clearly through that. We have a number of lenses and have tried each of those.

We have taken off the dust cap lol - peering inside there is a small circle with a *beep* in the centre of it and others around, and looking further down the tube we can see a mirror at the base.

From the outside - at the base of the scope there are three larger screws for adjustment and the inner circle area which seems to have a thin black lining to it which moves slightly when touched but would need the complete end taken off the scope to remove.

Any ideas ? What on earth are we doing wrong ? It is now 3.23 am and we'd dearly love to see something tonight if at all possible. The sky is perfect !